Optimized Chart Class for Displaying Variable Number of Lines

This example shows how to optimize a chart class for displaying a variable number of lines. It reuses existing line objects, which can improve the performance of the chart, especially if the number of lines does not change frequently. For a simpler version of this chart without the optimization, see Chart Class with Variable Number of Lines.

The chart displays as many lines as there are columns in the YData matrix, with circular markers at the local extrema. The following code demonstrates how to:

Define two properties called PlotLineArray and ExtremaLine that store the objects for the lines and the markers, respectively.
Implement a setup method that initializes the ExtremaLine object.
Implement an update method that gets the size of the PlotLineArray, and then adds or subtracts objects from that array according to the number of columns in YData.

To define the class, copy this code into the editor and save it with the name OptimLocalExtremaChart.m in a writable folder.

classdef OptimLocalExtremaChart < matlab.graphics.chartcontainer.ChartContainer
    % c = OptimLocalExtremaChart('XData',X,'YData',Y,Name,Value,...)
    % plots one line with markers at local extrema for every column of matrix Y. 
    % You can also specify the additonal name-value arguments, 'MarkerColor' 
    % and 'MarkerSize'.
    
    properties
        XData (:,1) double = NaN
        YData (:,:) double = NaN
        MarkerColor {validatecolor} = [1 0 0]
        MarkerSize (1,1) double = 5
    end
    properties(Access = private,Transient,NonCopyable)
        PlotLineArray (:,1) matlab.graphics.chart.primitive.Line
        ExtremaLine (:,1) matlab.graphics.chart.primitive.Line
    end
    
    methods(Access = protected)
        function setup(obj)
            obj.ExtremaLine = matlab.graphics.chart.primitive.Line(...
                'Parent', obj.getAxes(), 'Marker', 'o', ...
                'MarkerEdgeColor', 'none', 'LineStyle',' none');
        end
        function update(obj)
            % Get the axes
            ax = getAxes(obj);
            
            % Create extra lines as needed
            p = obj.PlotLineArray;
            nPlotLinesNeeded = size(obj.YData, 2);
            nPlotLinesHave = numel(p);
            for n = nPlotLinesHave+1:nPlotLinesNeeded
                p(n) = matlab.graphics.chart.primitive.Line('Parent', ax, ...
                    'SeriesIndex', n, 'LineWidth', 2);
            end
            
            % Update the lines
            for n = 1:nPlotLinesNeeded
                p(n).XData = obj.XData;
                p(n).YData = obj.YData(:,n);
            end
            
            % Delete unneeded lines
            delete(p((nPlotLinesNeeded+1):numel(p)))
            obj.PlotLineArray = p(1:nPlotLinesNeeded);
            
            % Replicate x-coordinate vectors to match size of YData
            newx = repmat(obj.XData(:),1,size(obj.YData,2));
            
            % Find local minima and maxima and plot markers
            tfmin = islocalmin(obj.YData,1);
            tfmax = islocalmax(obj.YData,1);
            obj.ExtremaLine.XData = [newx(tfmin); newx(tfmax)];
            obj.ExtremaLine.YData = [obj.YData(tfmin); obj.YData(tfmax)];
            obj.ExtremaLine.MarkerFaceColor = obj.MarkerColor;
            obj.ExtremaLine.MarkerSize = obj.MarkerSize;
            
            % Make sure the extrema are on top
            uistack(obj.ExtremaLine, 'top');
        end
    end
end

After saving the class file, you can create an instance of the chart. For example:

x = linspace(0,2)';
y = cos(5*x)./(1+x.^2);
c = OptimLocalExtremaChart('XData',x,'YData',y);

Now, create a for loop that adds an additional line to the plot at every iteration. The chart object keeps all the existing lines, and adds one additonal line for each i.

for i=1:10
    y = cos(5*x+i)./(1+x.^2);
    c.YData = [c.YData y];
end

Optimized Chart Class for Displaying Variable Number of Lines

See Also

Classes

Related Topics